PC Forums

The second letter in the greek alphabet, commonly used to refer to a pre-release version of a software program. When programs are first created by software developers, they go through several stages before they are released as commercial products. The first version of a program is called an "alpha". While there are no hard and fast rules, alpha versions typically contain the basic structure and menu options that exist in a final program, but not everything works and many functions still have "bugs" or problems with them. Alpha versions are almost never released to the public.

Once a program has been completed, it moves to the beta stage. Again, while there are many differences among companies, most beta versions are "feature complete," meaning they have all the functions that are supposed to be in the program and they generally work as advertised. However, beta versions haven't been through rigorous testing and so they often have bugs in them as well. Many companies offer beta versions to the public with the caveat that they might (and probably do) still have issues, so you need to use them at their own risk.

Source --> www.everythingtechnology.com